Operations management involves the management of human,technology and system resources.The operations management functions,like in other management disciplines, include planning,directing,organizing,staffing,motivating and controlling to achieve the set organizational goals. In addition to the above management functions operation managers perform many other activities as given below. - Facility location and lay out design-The facility location activity involves the decision of the location for the facility,manufacturing unit or service outfit,geographically.The layout design determines how the internal facilities (departments,equipments,service stations,workstations etc ) will be arranged.
- Job design and work measurement-The job design activity involves the structuring of work tasks assigned to an employee and the study of the tasks that make up the job.The work measurement activity involves the timing of the tasks that comprise a job.The job design and work measurement activities are carried out to optimize output.Design of the production processes, type of process design,and investment and economic analysis also studied to achieve maximum productivity
- Demand forecasting-Organizations need to forecast the demand for their products and services so that all relevant plans can be developed for the future.Operation managers need to estimate future demand as accurately as possible as this will influence not only the requirement of manpower resources but also the utilization of working capital.Various types of quantitative and non-quantitative forecasting techniques are used in operation management.
- Planning and controlling operations-Planning is the most important function performed by an operations manager.Planning may be long range(strategic),short range(operational) or medium range(tactical). An operational management plan follows as a sequel to the overall corporate planning and includes marketing,financial,personnel/MIS, other plans at the functional level and departmental plans for the purchasing,inventory,assembly,finishing etc.Aggregate plans define how the resources can be best employed to meet market demand for the given products
- Materials management-The materials management activity involves the grouping of management functions supporting materials flow.Materials management includes activities starting from purchase and internal control of production materials,the planning and control of unfinished products in process at various stages of production and the warehousing,shipping and distribution of the finished product
- Inventory control and management-The inventory management activity is concerned with the planning and control of inventories of raw materials,consumables,work in progress materials,other economic resourses and finished goods.
- Purchase management-This function is a subsystem of the materials management and is of special importance in a typical manufacturing firm where 50-60%of the total costs is made up of purchases.Purchase management functions include vendor development,selection of suppliers,contract negotiation,value analysis,make or buy decisions and maintaining the high ethics
- Total Quality Management-This is a management concept that focuses the collective efforts of all managers and employees on satisfying customer expectations by continually improving operation management processes and products.
- Supply chain management-Supply chain can be described as the network covering the various stages in the provision of products or services to the customers.Supply chain management integrates procurement,operations and logistics to provide value added products or services.Effective management of the supply chain enables organisations to meet customer requirements in time with improved facility utilisation,optimimal inventory etc.
- Project Management-A thorough knowledge of project management procedures,tools and techniques is essential for the operations manager as almost all organizations embark upon projects of one kind or another almost all the time.Also some project oriented organizations take years to deliver their products.Project management uses basic tools like PERT/CPM and their advanced versions for planning ,scheduling and expediting.
- Maintenance management-The objective of maintenance management is to ensure that the systems are working at their optimum efficiency and is essential to the organization for productivity,increase operational life of equipments and kep safe working conditions.Maintenance management uses modern preventive and predictive maintenance tools and monitoring techniques
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